Terraform google_container_cluster example removes the default node pool.

resource "google_container_cluster" "primary" {
  name     = "my-gke-cluster"
  location = "us-central1"

  # We can't create a cluster with no node pool defined, but we want to only use
  # separately managed node pools. So we create the smallest possible default
  # node pool and immediately delete it.
  remove_default_node_pool = true
  initial_node_count       = 1
}

However, as the default pool is removed and there can be no node to deploy the system pods.

Question

What is the good way to have a node to deploy the system pods?

1. Have a default pool with number of nodes is 1 and schedule system pods in the defaujlt node. Set the min autoscaling node count to 0 and do not schedule system pods in auto scaling pods
2. Remove the default pool. Set the min autoscaling node count to 1 so that system pods can be deployed in a autoscaling node.

Node pool defnition

resource "google_container_node_pool" "primary" {
  name     = "${google_container_cluster.primary.name}-node-pool"
  project  = var.PROJECT_ID
  location = var.location

  cluster  = google_container_cluster.primary.name

  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # Node instantiation based on auto-scaling setting.
  # node_count and autoscaling are mutually exclusive.
  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  node_count = var.autoscaling == true ? null : var.num_nodes
  dynamic "autoscaling" {
    for_each = var.autoscaling ? [1] : []
    content {
      min_node_count = var.min_node_count   # Set to 0 currently
      max_node_count = var.max_node_count
    }
  }

  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # Node configurations
  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  node_config {
    #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    # Service Account, the roles of which the node assumes
    #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    service_account = var.service_account

    #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    # Instance configurations
    #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    machine_type = var.machine_type
    preemptible  = var.node_preemptive
    disk_size_gb = var.disk_size_gb
    disk_type    = var.disk_type

    metadata = {
      disable-legacy-endpoints = "true"
    }

    #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    # The K8S labels (key/value pairs) to be applied to each node
    #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    labels = var.labels

    oauth_scopes = [
      "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.write",
      "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/monitoring",
    ]
    tags = var.tags
  }
}